The present invention relates generally to the field of shopping bags, and, in particular, to a new and useful shopping bag that can be converted into an attractive poster, and to a method for such conversion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,992 discloses a paper bag for containing take-out food from a restaurant that can be converted by the customer into a flat place mat.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,160,343 discloses a paper bag that is formed by folding and stitching a sheet of gift-wrapping paper. A line of holes or perforations along certain edges of the sheet allows a ribbon to be chain-stitched through the holes to secure the edges together.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,853,710 shows a paper shopping bag that has perforations that facilitate tearing the bag in such a way that it is converted into a costume such as a child might wear.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,000,242 shows a paper bag that is imprinted with a face so that it can be used as a mask.
A large variety of other bags, both of paper and of cloth, are know which can be converted from a bag into something other than a bag.
Modern shopping bags have evolved into more than a simple container for storing and transporting a shopper""s purchases. Such bags, which can be made of various flexible materials such as paper, plastics, woven or non-woven fibers, and the like, have become a valuable vehicle for advertising, and are often saved by a shopper for future use, thus increasing the brand recognition impact of this relatively inexpensive commodity.
The present invention seeks to further enhance the usefulness and long-term impact of the shopping bag in a new and unique manner.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a convertible shopping bag made of a sheet of material having an outer surface that carries an image with a selected correct orientation. The sheet is formed into a bag having front and rear walls each with left, right, top and bottom edges. The edges are connected to each other to close a bottom and opposite sides of the bag, and to leave a top opening for receiving and discharging goods. The image has portions which are on at least part of each of the outer surfaces of the sheet at the front and rear walls so that with two of the connected edges disconnected, the bag is unfolded at the remaining connected edges to form a poster with all portions of the image in the correct orientation. The different portions of the image may be right-side up, down or side-ways on the bag, as long as the image wraps at least partly across both walls and makes sense when the bag is cut open to form the poster.
The bag may also include side and bottom panels connected between the edges, with portions of the image spanning the one or more side and/or bottom panels.
The image may, for example, be that of an standing or reclining person with the upper body on the front wall and the lower body of the rear wall.
For a standing figure the image may be side-ways when the bag opening is up, and part of the image may span one of the side panels. To convert to the poster, the bottom is cut entirely from the sheet and one of the side edges nearest the head of the figure, is cut. The bag walls and uncut side panel are then spread flat to form the poster which can then be rotated from a side-ways to an upright position, and mounted, e.g. using tape or poster mounting clay, to a solid surface such as a door or wall.
Since shopping bag can be quite large (e.g. 10xe2x80x3 to 20xe2x80x3 wide and the same or a different dimension tall) the resulting poster is likewise large, elongated and sticking.
For the image of a reclining figure, the effect is even more striking in that the figure has the same reclining pose on the bag as on the unfolded poster which can be mount in a horizontally elongated position.
Correlated parts of a poster image can also span the walls and panels of a bag from front top, across the bag bottom and up the rear wall. This type of bag is converted by cutting the side edges and unfolding the walls. Initially the front image may be upright and the rear image upside down so that a correctly oriented and correlated image results on the unfolded poster.
Fastening means such as two sided tape can be provide on inside surfaces of the bag which are strategically placed so that when the bag is cut and unfolded, the tapes can be used to mount the poster. This will add little to the cost of the bag but greatly enhances its utility.